Q&A: The Future of the Peace Process

Afghan residents used a blanket to carry the body of a child at the site of a suicide attack in front of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad, August 3.

The three suicide bombers who on Saturday attempted to attack the Indian consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad didn’t succeed in their apparent aim: They were stopped at a checkpoint and no Indian officials were injured. Instead, nine Afghans, most of them children, were killed and 21 injured in the attack.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing and the Taliban denied being involved.

India’s foreign ministry spoke of the “terror machine” that operates from beyond Afghanistan’s border. A person familiar with the matter said preliminary evidence suggests the attackers themselves may have been Pakistani nationals.

Pakistan, meanwhile, strongly condemned the attack.

Over the past decade, Islamabad has resented New Delhi’s growing influence in Afghanistan, a country that it sees as historically falling under its sphere of influence.

The attack comes at a delicate time in relations between the two neighbors, who in recent months stepped up efforts to resume peace talks.

In an email interview, The Wall Street Journal asked Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, a political analyst who previously served as India’s ambassador to Pakistan, how tensions between the two countries have played out in Afghanistan, and what this means for the budding peace process.

Edited excerpts:

The Wall Street Journal: Do you think Pakistani elements could have any interest in targeting Indian diplomatic facilities in Afghanistan?

Gopalaswami Parthasarathy: This is not the first instance that an Indian mission in Afghanistan has been targeted in recent years. In 2008, our embassy in Kabul was attacked and our military attaché Brigadier R.D. Mehta and the political counselor Mr. [Venkateswara] Rao were killed. Indian staff living in a hostel in Kabul have been similarly targeted and killed. There have also been attacks on our consulates, aid projects and construction teams across Afghanistan, where Indian lives have been lost.

According to information we have received from the Afghan government, from our own sources and from friendly countries, all these major attacks have been planned and executed from across the Durand Line, by people primarily linked to the Quetta Shura [The Taliban leadership] and the Haqqani network [a hardline insurgent group allied to the Taliban.] The reasons for such actions and the identities of the masterminds are self-evident.

WSJ: Recently, diplomatic contacts between Indian and Pakistan have stepped up to resume peace talks. What impact could Saturday’s attack have on moves towards peace negotiations, if any?

Mr. Parthasarathy: Terrorism from territory controlled by Pakistan is a fact of life we know about. Attacks [on India] from Pakistani soil – whether in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kabul or Jalalabad – do naturally vitiate the climate for talks.

WSJ: More broadly, how hopeful are you about the resumption of peace talks between India and Pakistan?

Mr. Parthasarathy: While one likes to be an optimist, when it comes to talks with Pakistan, we have learnt to moderate optimism with realism.

WSJ: What impact, if any, do you think the withdrawal of U.S.-led combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 will have on the strategic competition between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan?

Mr. Parthasarathy: We did not ask NATO forces to come to Afghanistan. They came because the 9/11 strikes were planned and executed from Afghan soil. We will naturally have to wait and see how things play out after NATO forces thin out. I do not believe our policies in Afghanistan are based on any “strategic competition” with Pakistan.

Our interest lies in seeing that Afghanistan does not again become a haven for terrorism against India as it was when the Taliban ruled the country and colluded with terrorists and hijackers inimical to us. We also naturally have an interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mineral and agricultural development and promoting Afghanistan’s economic integration with the rest of South Asia, while facilitating transit to Central Asia. This will be possible only when there is peace and stability in the country.

Margherita Stancati is based at The Wall Street Journal’s Kabul bureau.

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